


Symmetrical

by Beleriandings



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Character Death alluded to, Childhood, Gen, Haircuts, Kija's hair: the origin story, actually a lot less sad than that tag makes it sound
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-04
Updated: 2016-06-04
Packaged: 2018-07-12 07:31:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7091671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beleriandings/pseuds/Beleriandings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Young Kija has an (unintentional) important haircut.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Symmetrical

**Author's Note:**

> This cuteness happened because I had a sudden headcanon based on the fact that Kija didn’t have the cute little hair tail at the age of four in the Zeno flashbacks, but did (sort of) at the age of five in the extra with his father.

Kija was five years old, and he loved nothing better than his long hair, which he had been growing out these last months, past his shoulders. It was so pretty, he thought, winding a lock of it around a finger. The brightest silver in the village, and soft and shiny like his mother’s. It was even long enough to tie back at the base of his neck, just like his father always tied his, and that made Kija happier than anything, especially as he had not even seen his father in the last few months, not even on the heavily supervised visits he was usually allowed. Maybe, he thought, when his father got better, he could show him how they matched now. Kija liked that idea.

(His granny still sometimes sternly instructed him to have the split ends cut - it was not becoming in such a noble person as himself to never have his hair trimmed, she said - and he obeyed her, it was only grudgingly, with as much of a sulky pout as any five-year-old could muster.)

Then came the day when his granny found him sitting on the floor and sobbing, little drifts of soft silver locks falling from one side of his head onto the carpeted floor. 

“Lord Hakuryuu!” she motioned for her bearers to carry her closer, alarmed. “Are you alright? Are you sick? Injured?”

Kija only wailed louder. 

“Darling, what’s the matter?”

“My _hair_!” he flung his hands up in the air, turning his head with a hiccupping sob, and she gasped for a moment, before she gave a sigh. 

“Oh, child” she said, looking at the place on the side of his head where part of his hair had been sheared off at just above his jaw, sticking out at the side now in short uneven silver-white tufts. She was extremely relieved, at least, that he wasn’t hurt, but she knew he would be inconsolable for days. “What happened?”

“I… I was playing with my hair, and…” he held up his dragon hand with its razor-sharp claws, with a little wail of distress, “and I accidentally…” he started crying again, wrapping his arms around himself. 

 _Accidentally cut off all his hair on one side_. She sighed, motioning for the trusted servants who carried her litter to lower her down, and for Kija to come over to her. He did, standing up and tottering on tentative feet over to her, plopping himself down beside her. She ran her fingers through his messily chopped hair and wiped away his tears. “Hush, hush now, Lord Hakuryuu. It’s all right. I’ll cut it for you, so it’s all the same length. It’ll be short like you used to have it, but it’ll grow back, you know. In time.”

He frowned, tilting his head, as sceptical as a small child can be. “How much time?”

“A year, perhaps” she smiled, stroking his cheek as he let out another wail of despair. 

“A year! But I wanted…” he hiccuped again, sadly “…I wanted to have long pretty hair that I can tie in a little tail, like my father does!”

“I know, I know” she said consolingly, considering his hair. It was only cut off on one side… the other side, and the back, was the same as ever. She sighed. “But it’s not symmetrical. It doesn’t look dignified, Lord Hakuryuu.”

He sniffed, looking up at her with wide, curious turquoise eyes. “What’s that mean? Sym… tricle?”

“Symmetrical. It means the same on both sides.”

He nodded wisely. “I guess it should be… sym…eh…trical then. Can you make it look like that?”

She nodded, running her fingers through his soft silver hair once more. “Let me get someone to find some scissors.”

He nodded, wiping away the last of his tears, then looked back up at her. “Granny?”

“Yes, Lord Hakuryuu?”

He tugged at his hair. “Can you… keep a long bit of hair? Please? Just… one bit?”

“One bit of long hair?”

He nodded quickly. “It can still be sym…eh…trical! I just want to keep one bit of long hair!”

She looked at him for a while. Then she smiled. “Of course, child. I’ll see what I can do.”


End file.
